Descendants
by DG Dumplin
Summary: After the setback of being jailed by a crazed demon worshipping cult, Valkyrie Cain is left without her partner, Skulduggery Pleasant. But someone waits inside her dark prison cell; someone who has ties closer to this devil worship than she might ever know. Summary may change as time goes on. Story is set after book 9, so spoilers from later books. Some things are also changed.
1. Prologue

_Prologue: One Thousand Years Ago._

 _It took the young man what seemed like ages to get to the bottom of the dungeon._ His _dungeon. Where his God would soon be brought back to Earth where he and his brothers rightfully belonged._

 _His lungs were burning by the time he got to the end of the staircase; he pressed his palm into the hidden compartment on the cold stone wall, which proceed to slide apart. Once the door would open far enough, it allowed him to see the one thing he didn't want to see._

 _There was no magnificent being waiting in the centre of the room for him where the portal was supposed to open. Instead, the only sight that greeted the young man was one of horror, not the beauty his God was supposed to bring._

 _The stone walls were scorched. The various furniture items around the room were either smashed completely or blocked from sight by corpses. Some corpses wore cloaks that were as red as the blood that had been splattered across the walls; these people were his allies, his servants._

 _His face twisted into a scowl when he saw the other corpses, the ones who wore neither red, nor any other identifiable uniform. These people were his enemies. His antagonists to the reigns of his Dark Lords. The Apostles, they called themselves. Named after the closest followers of Jesus Christ himself._

 _And when his eyes were done scanning the faces of colleagues and enemies alike, his dark eyes found the one body he had never wanted to lay eyes on. The body had been stripped bare. The only thing left of the God was its dark, deformed skeleton. It was at least nine feet tall, with four horns protruding from its head. Two from the back, and two from the front, close to the forehead. Its red eyes were still alight, however, but they were unseeing._

 _The young man dropped to his knees beside the skeleton with a cry of exasperation and the burning feeling of utter fury twisting throughout his very soul. Just a few feet away lay another body; one of a man just as young as himself. His eyes were open as well, and his hands bound with rope. He had been their sacrifice, the one intended to bring the first of the Descendants to the world. And then he heard the cough behind him._

 _The young man turned. One of his enemies sat against the wall just beside the hidden door. The man looked to be somewhere in his early thirties. With a snarl, he stood, and marched over to the older man. Along the way, he dropped the hood of his own crimson cloak and crouched to peer into the eyes of the Apostle._

 _"What have you done?" He questioned. The older man said nothing, merely looked back up at him. He struck the Apostle across the face. "What have you_ done?! _" He repeated, drawing the dagger from behind his belt. Before he could even attempt to utter a word, the younger man had pushed the dagger into his throat, all the way up to the ornate goat's head embedded in the hilt._

 _Cleaning off the dagger, he stood and marched again, this time for the stairs. The wall slid shut behind him. There were still two more Descendants out there, and he was going to find them. Even if it took him a thousand years._


	2. Chapter 1: Prisoner

**Here it is, my first official chapter of Descendants! (I really need a better name for this). I should also mention (as the summary says) that this is set after Dying of the Light, but has some things changed. Ghastly's still alive, and Valkyrie is about 19 or 20, and still maintains her regular powers.**

* * *

The sun was just barely rising when the van finally stopped. Valkyrie Cain was dragged from the back by one of the men, and shoved ahead to the stone path that led to the old Monastery. Some of them were dressed like regular sorcerers, but their skin was cracked and dead looking. There were Cleavers around her, also; their coats and helmets had cracks running through them too, and their usual grey uniforms were now pitch black in colour.

Her hands had been shackled to dampen her powers. Cut off from the source of her magic, she could do nothing to escape these men. They looked as if they were dead, but they moved with a purpose. Valkyrie knew if she ran for it, they would be on top of her in a second. She had no idea where the van had taken her, but it looked like no part of Ireland she had ever seen before.

How long had it been since they had loaded her in to the vehicle? Hours? Days, maybe, had passed since she had last seen her partner Skulduggery Pleasant. They had gone to once again investigate Serpine's castle; the very same castle where she had saved him from Serpine's Hollow Men, and where she had seen her friend Tanith nailed to a chair only a day or so before Dreylan Scarab attempted to kill 80,000 people with the Desolation Engine.

Their quarry was one Chadli Victor; he was an Energy-Thrower, but his power was like one she had never seen anyone use before. Moments before Skulduggery managed to take him down, he had thrown a horde of zombies at them, then even attempted to use his power to blow out the walls and bring the roof down on them all. Neither one had worked. And that's when the Cleavers had shown up.

Skulduggery had grumbled something about reinforcements never being on time when they needed them, right before one of the Cleavers jumped him. The rest had grabbed Valkyrie, and gone for the window, once they hit the ground, more of these sickly looking men had cuffed her and put her in the back of the unmarked van.

And now she was here, practically being dragged into what remained of an old Monastery. They guided her down the stairs and through series after series of intersecting corridors that seemed to go on forever until they reached row upon row of jail cells. As one of the dead men began unlocking the cell, she heard a clink of metal and a rattling of chains from within; someone was already in there. Valkyrie was shoved in, almost hitting her leg on the small bed within. The cell was small and narrow, and she could already feel her claustrophobia clawing at her.

The dead looking man with the cracked skin produced a key through the bars, and uncuffed her. He then wandered off, the black uniformed Cleavers trailing him. There was a rustling behind her, from within the cell. She turned, and a man somewhere around her age walked forward from the shadows of the cell. She narrowed her eyes as he blankly stared at her, then he grinned.

"Hey," his accent was British. "How's it looking out there?" His question only made her narrow her eyes further. He was quite handsome, and his blonde hair was styled neatly.

"Uh... fine. Lots of dead looking people."

"Well, that's to be expected." That grin, still on his handsome face. "They got you too, huh? Where'd they pick you up from, then?" Valkyrie ignored his question for a moment as she moved to the wall, slowly sitting down, keeping her guard up.

"Ireland." She finally answered, and he only nodded in response as he sat down opposite her. "Well, you're a bit far from home, then." She noticed his leg was chained to the back wall of the cell.

"How far? Where exactly am I?" She hadn't yet dropped her guard, but his general demeanour and stance so far seemed quite relaxed. There was no answer from him for a moment, and as the light flickered the right way, she could see a scar across his face. It wasn't too big, and barely visible, but her keen observational skills she had learnt from Skulduggery had allowed her to pick it up. The faint scar went from one side of his face, across his nose, and stopped just on the other side.

"Relax." He finally said. "You're so tense. My name's Oscar." His eyes were scanning her, and he seemed to know she hadn't dropped her guard yet. After introducing himself to her, he moved slowly forward, crawling halfway across the floor of the cell so he could hold his hand out to her. She visibly hesitated, before reaching forward and shaking his hand. He smiled again, but this smile seemed more real and more genuine than how he had grinned at her before.

"As for your question, I'm not too sure where we are right this minute."

She rolled her dark eyes, and glared at him. "That's helpful."

He stared back at her. His eyes were some shade of green. "Sarcasm never helped anybody." He said with a sigh, sitting back against the wall, the chain around his leg keeping him from going too far. She looked over at it. "Why are you chained up, anyway? They didn't even bother to leave my cuffs on."

Oscar's hands went to the chain and he pulled on it, as if he were trying to break it. From the look of his hands, it seemed like he had tried a thousand times already. "Oh. They probably don't think you're that much of a threat, then." She scowled at this, but was ignored as he continued. "Whereas I managed to break into this Monastery, and tried to kill all of their leaders. I almost succeeded, too. This place is very special to me. I was born here, you see."

"You said you didn't know where we were."

"I lied."

Valkyrie just sighed. "Of course you did. Why were you of all people born _here_?" He tilted his head.

"What do you mean, _of all people_?"

"Uh..." He grinned once more.

"You think I'm handsome, don't you?" She glared sharply at him. "No."

"No?"

" _No."_

"Are you sure?"

"Am I sure I don't think you're handsome? Very sure."

"We'll have to see about that." He tilted his head at her, and she glared again. "What?" She questioned.

"You still haven't told me your name."

"Ah. It's Valkyrie."

"Valkyrie." He repeated, nodding. He finally let go of the chain he had been pulling on, and sat back. "This place didn't have cells when I was born here, by the way. Back then, it was a functioning safe haven for humans and demons alike. The monks here accepted everybody."

"Demons?"

"Excuse me?"

"You just said Demons."

"Did I?"

"Yes."

"Are you certain?"

She sighed. "Here we go with this again."

Oscar's one and only response was to grin once again. He opened his mouth to speak again, but there were people standing at the cell door.

They were all very tall, the tallest one standing in the back. One woman, two men. Or at least, she thought they were. The one in front, the woman, was Japanese with long dark hair. A short sword was strapped to her hip, and she was using a small key to open the cell door. One of the men was bald, and his skin was the colour of crimson red. Beneath his robes, he wore some sort of black armour, and there was a fresh looking scar along the right side of his neck, which seemed to start at his throat.

The third was a vampire. He stood slightly above, as well as behind, the others. And for some odd reason, he seemed to be stuck in his vampire form, which was that of an albino monster, with fangs and claws as sharp as razors, along with small black eyes.

And all three of them, staring straight at Oscar with a sort of hatred in their eyes.

"I'm very popular." Oscar said. "Now, let me introduce you, Valkyrie, to Lore Winter, Merrick, and Adaranth, one of the ugliest vampires I've ever met."

The woman, Lore, had used her key to open the cell door, and she was now in the doorway. Oscar had pointed to each one of them as he told Valkyrie their names; there was a flash of silver and a fraction of a second later, Oscar's finger was lying on the floor, a big red puddle beginning to leak out beside it.

* * *

 **I think that's about it for this chapter. 1,478 words or so, not bad for the first chapter! Please let me know what you guys think.**


End file.
